THE LENGTHENING BATTLE-LINE. T HE enemy has begun a new offensive
this week, directed once more against the British lines. It would be rash to infer that his attack in great force north of La Bassee, which began on Tuesday, is a tacit admission that he cannot progress fast enough in the direction of Amiens. But it is well known that the valley of the Lys, in which General von Below's large army is now attacking on both sides of Armentieres, is perhaps the wettest and most dismal part of the front, and that since the hard fighting before La Base& in the winter of 1914-15, and our gallant offensives at Neuve Chapelle and at Festubert in the spring of 1915, this sector has been comparatively quiet. The enemy on the Aubers Ridge has looked down into our waterlogged trenches without coveting them. There must be some new and strong motive to tempt him to attack in this dreary marshland. He may have thought that our Portuguese allies, who have held this sector for many months, would fall an easy prey. He may have designs upon the coalfield running south to Loos and Lens, which the French are working within the battle-zone. Or he may simply have concluded that this flat country between the Messines Ridge on the north and the ridge crowned by Vermelles and Souchez to the south was the weakest spot in our line between Arras and the sea, and there- fore afforded chances to a powerful attack, conducted with an utter disregard for the cost in lives. It cannot be remembered too often that Sir Douglas Haig's great victories of last year at Passchendaele, Messmes, and Vimy, and the capture of the Chemin des Dames by the French, completely transformed the character of the Allied front. Until then we were precariously entrenched at the foot of ridges held by the enemy, who had chosen them in his retreat from the Marne and his later advance towards the Channel ports as the best available positions fon defence. All these ridges were wrested from the Germans last year, except the northern end of the Passchendaele Ridge, and except the Aubers Ridge which covers Lille. The Armen- tieres sector, below Aubers, is thus the one part of our line that was not improved by last year's successes, and therefore, apart from its marshy character, the one part that seemed to invite attack. It would be premature to speculate on the possibili- ties, but it may be pointed out that so long as the Messines and Souchez Ridges are held by the British Army, the enemy can- not safely advance west along the Lys. The recapture by our men of the low hill at Givenchy on Tuesday was more im- portant tactically than the overrunning of the flat ground north of it by the enemy. Even the evacuation of Armentieres on Wednesday night, though regrettable, does not necessarily affect the stability of our line. The little town, which we had held since 1914, had during the last few months been syste- matically wrecked, as ;Ypres was, by the German heavy guns, and was deluged with gas-shells. The enemy advance to the Lys on the south and into Ploegsteert Wood in the north left Armentieres at the apex of a very narrow salient which it was not worth while to defend at great cost in soldiers' lives. The German front of attack between Givenchy and Messines has thus been straightened and widened, but so long as the enemy is kept to the low ground by the Lys he has achieved nothing of consequence.
The value of a ridge in modern warfare, which was only too well known to our armies in the early days, has been illustrated again in this battle. If the public do not clearly understand it, the fault lies in the main with the newspaper map-makers, who too seldom give contoured maps. A glance at the contours of the present front would show why our superb troops have been able to stand firm like rocks during the past fortnight north of the Somme, along the line of the Ancre, and up to Arras and Lens, and why to the south of the river, where the ground is less favourable for defence, they have had to retire a short distance before fierce attacks and to recover the lost villages by counter-attacks. It is of course far too soon to say that the line north of the Somme to the Vimy Ridge is impregnable. That word is indeed erased from the military vocabulary. But we may find legitimate satisfaction in knowing that the enemy's repeated attacks in great force on this sector have so far availed him nothing. There is a physical limit to the number of men and guns that can be employed on a given front, and it is unlike the Germans to use insufficient means to attain their end. We may con- clude, therefore, that the attack of Thursday week by ten divisions on the sector north and south of Albert was as heavy a blow as the enemy could deliver, and it was struck in vain. The attack on the Vimy Ridge a week before had failed just as completely, though it was made by a very-large force of picked " storm-troops." Similarly- in the past week the French have held manfully to the ridges west and east of Montdidier, and have only given ground in the river valleys which seam the low plateau before Amiens. The map that ignores contours, and therefore suggests that every village is of equal military importance, misleads the diligent reader of the daily bulletins and gives him a false impression of the enemy's successes. We would not have any one suppose that we do not regard the enemy's advance with the utmost seriousness. The Germans have indeed gained an initial success in this battle which the Allies must counteract by every means in their power. But we simply wish to point out that so long as we and the French retain the important ridges which were won last year, the Allied line cannot be vitally impaired. The Prime Minister's account of the battle in his speech of Tuesday has not added much to our knowledge, for reasons which may be easily understood. He would neither condemn nor acquit General Gough, who commanded the brave but unfortunate Fifth Army and who has been recalled. It would be well if the public too would suspend judgment on a General who has done great service in France since the early days of the war. Mr. Lloyd George rightly praised the whole Army for its magnificent steadiness in retreat. The -Third Army under General Byng, he said, never yielded ground except to conform with the movements of the Fifth Army on its right, though the Third Army had to bear just as fierce and heavy a series of attacks as the other did. We are all too apt in these days to dwell on the gloomy side of the picture. It is surely right to comfort ourselves with the magnificent deeds of General Byng's men, and the heroic stand made by many units of the Fifth Army during its rapid but not disorderly retreat. Men like these, if they are properly supported from home, will never be beaten by any force that the Germans can hurl against them. Mr. Lloyd George's chief contribution to the story of the battle was perplexing rather than illuminating. He said that Sir Henry Wilson in February predicted the exact place and the precise weight of the German offensive of March 21st, and that the Governments and the Generals were fully informed. We agree with the Prime Minister that this is no time for recriminations, but we cannot help saying that his tribute to Sir Henry Wilson's prescience raises more questions than it answers. The layman will naturally ask whether full preparations were made to meet the attack which came where it was expected, and if not, why not. The layman will want to know why, if unity of command was essential, it was not effected. a few days before instead of a few days after the battle began. The layman too will wonder why Mr. Bonar Law, as a member of the War Cabinet, persisted almost to the last in saying that there would be no German offensive in the West, though his military advisers expected it and knew all about it. Mr. Bonar Law's attempt on Wednesday to ex- plain his scepticism did not amount to much. We shall not pursue the subject, which Mr. Lloyd George would have done well to leave alone. Military controversy is undesirable in the midst of this great and critical battle.
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